Tithing Settlement and Bishopric Member

The training regarding tithing settlement mentions that a member of the bishopric must attend tithing settlement in addition to the clerk so that any tithing paid during settlement can be processed and batched out.

I was just wondering if others have the bishopric member stay the entire time, or do they just come at the end of the allotted time since the bishop holds on to anything paid during the day until the end, and then the batch is processed.

Just seems overkill to have the bishopric member sitting there not doing anything until the very end, if at all. If nobody pays during settlement, than the bishopric member wasn't needed at all.

Any thoughts?

When I was finance clerk (just a few years ago), we would accept on-the-spot donations and process them prior to the member's interview with the bishop. This required a member of the bishopric there to not only accept the donation, but be present during the process of opening, counting, and entering into MLS.

We just have the bishopric member come in at the end of the night.

We thought about what Mikerowaved said, but then you have money sitting around the entire night, so we opted to not do that.

We normally have either a clerk or a bishopric member there and then process the tithing at the end of the settlement interviews.

douggw wrote:Just seems overkill to have the bishopric member sitting there not doing anything until the very end, if at all. If nobody pays during settlement, than the bishopric member wasn't needed at all.

When I was a ward financial clerk, we generally had a counselor there to accept donations and to process them. By staying on top of donations as they came in, we could wrap up the batch just a few minutes after the end of tithing settlement for the day, instead of waiting to start processing at the end of the day.

But as for the "bishopric member sitting there not doing anything until the very end" I would say that there should be plenty for him to do. Put him to work! At tithing settlement time, wards in our stake have a flurry of activity, and a clerk can't do it all:

• Handing forms and statements to members as they arrive.
• Reviewing the Individual Ordinance Summary.
• Calling members with appointments to remind them (not all wards do this, but some find it helpful).
• Calling members without appointments to see if they could fill in upcoming empty slots, so that the bishop's time is used more effectively.
• Taking photos for the directory.
• Helping members sign up for an LDS Account.
• Showing members tools available on LDS.org.

Well, they don't just twittle their thumbs while they are there. We have the processing done and when the last person comes in, we'll add any tithing they have and finish up.

But, i like some of your ideas of updating the webpage etc.